Modern medical care often involves the use of medication management systems that include medication delivery and monitoring devices such as medication delivery pumps or patient parameter monitors or both, Medication management systems for configuring, controlling and monitoring medication delivery devices have been disclosed. For example, commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,895,053 titled “MEDICATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM” that issued on Feb. 22, 2011 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/783,573 titled “MEDICATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM” that published as US20050278194A1 on Dec. 15, 2005 disclose a medication management system wherein user customizable drug library or medical device configuration information is prepared using a drug library editor (DLE) program and module of a medication management unit (MMU). Hospira MedNet™ Meds™ software available from Hospira, Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill., U.S.A. includes such a DLE program. The MMU, which is equipped with Hospira MedNet™ Server software, downloads the customizable drug library to the medication delivery pump and receives status or activity information from the pump. Commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 8,065,161 titled “SYSTEM FOR MAINTAINING DRUG INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATING WITH MEDICATION DELIVERY DEVICES” that issued on Nov. 22, 2011 discloses how the drug library or medical device configuration information is created, edited, stored and communicated to a medication delivery device in the context of a medication management system to deliver substances, such as fluids or fluid medication or both to patients.
According to the above-mentioned commonly owned published patent applications, a typical medication management system includes a point of care computer, such as a barcode point of care computer and/or pharmacy computer, and/or an MMU, in communication with one or more medication delivery devices. The point of care computer(s) and/or the MMU, with associated memory, store and share or communicate various information, such as patient information, prescription information, customized drug library or other information, for managing medication delivery to a patients, such as performing five-rights checking, configuring the medication delivery devices, and receiving and storing event, status or activity information received from the medication delivery devices.
Caregivers and clinicians use outputs from patient monitoring and equipment monitoring devices to make various patient care decisions. Patient monitoring devices and patient care equipment monitoring devices may be connected to a receiver, which receives the output signals from the patient monitoring devices and patient care equipment monitoring devices. In some cases, the receivers may display and/or record the information from the patient and patient care equipment monitoring devices. In other cases, the devices may include a monitor and/or recording medium. The receivers or devices may also have preset or adjustable alarms that are triggered when one of the outputs from the patient or patient care equipment monitoring devices deviates from a pre-set limit.
In hospitals that use infusion pumps and other medical devices, alarms are used to indicate device malfunction, therapy interruptions, end of therapy and other events that need to be handled by the clinical staff. Typically, alarms get displayed on device screens and produce audible sound. In some cases, there are too many devices that alarm in close proximity to each other. As a result, it is very hard to tell which device is actually alarming. The sound of alarms can also disturb or wake up sleeping patients. Hospital nurses usually manage multiple infusions running on multiple patients in one or more given clinical care areas. It is difficult for a nurse to be in the same vicinity of the infusion device at all times during an infusion, thus making it difficult to respond immediately to infusion-related or infusion device alarms. Further, clinical staff is not always in the close proximity to the alarming device to hear the alarm. In such situations it would be desirable for the staff to be notified of device alarms as soon as possible regardless of their proximity to the device so that they can better attend to their patients' needs.
Further, in some patient cases, it is critical to isolate the patient and reduce the exposure of the patient to unnecessary hospital conditions (e.g. burn patient being exposed to drafts or airborne contaminants when opening the door to the patient room). Further, multiple nurses may utilize the same pump on a patient between device cleaning. This results in an increase possibility of contamination due to an increased number of clinicians contacting the device. The pump may be contaminated by a clinician. This contamination may be transferred to the patient either by the clinician that first contaminated the pump or by a subsequent clinician who acquires the contamination by contacting the pump and then who transfers the contamination to the patient in the course of providing care to the patient. Further, contamination applied to a pump may be transferred to other devices and patients by clinicians who come in contact with the contamination on the pump and carry it with them to other pumps and patients where the contamination can be deposited and spread. Where alarms require a clinician to actually come to and contact a pump in order to assess the alarm, shut the alarm off or otherwise respond to the alarm, the likelihood of such contamination and cross-contamination increases.